


Acceptable Risk

by WeaverOfWorlds



Category: Really Freakin Clever, Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Worldbuilding, M/M, Mythology - Freeform, a different friend this time though, in which I write some more fanfic of my friends' OCs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 09:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18247163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeaverOfWorlds/pseuds/WeaverOfWorlds
Summary: Seeking to claim the seven Insanity Sapphires before the openly antagonistic Golden the Meerkat, Josh the Hedgehog consults with his boyfriend Butts to find the last two temples he needs to reach. However, there's more to this gig than he expected, and with all that he's been through thus far, Butts is getting increasingly concerned for Josh's safetyBased on characters by Joshua McDougall/Really Freakin Clever bc idk I just got inspired my dude





	Acceptable Risk

Josh the Hedgehog reached across the workbench in front of him, his joints creaking loudly in protest as he picked up the oilcan. He'd been so caught up in his search for the Insanity Sapphires the past few days had completely consumed him, and lead to him forgetting the upkeep of his mechanical limbs. He tried in vain a few times to bend his elbow to apply the lubricant to the other arm, his frustration growing with each failed attempt, but eventually he sighed and shouted for assistance. "BUTTS, HONEY, CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A SEC?!" His mechanical voice from the voicebox he'd installed years ago blared out its scratchy tones, and Josh flinched; that could do with a tune-up too.

After a beat, Josh caught the sound of pattering footsteps descending the stairs to his basement workshop, and as the door creaked open, the cyborg smiled warmly seeing the vibrant pink fur of his beloved's soft snout poke into the room.

Butt's slowly walked over, his large eyes sweeping the scene with a hidden keenness that never failed to catch Josh off guard when it was displayed. "Trouble with your joints again?" he asked, voice low and calm and soothing. He chuckled, "I've got you, don't worry." Butts carefully took the oilcan from Josh's clawed grasp, deftly applying the substance in the way he'd watched his boyfriend do every morning and night for the past several years, gently beginning to ease the joints back into movement. "You're as bad as I am when you get into research my dear, one of us really should be a bit more responsible."

His arms fully mobile again, Josh laughed. "You're right, maybe we should stagger our research so there's always one person who's actually With It at any given time to help remind the other person to eat and shit." He glanced towards the maps spread across the workbench, tools weighing down the curled edges and red string crisscrossing the surface between being held by nuts and bolts. "All my looking into things; the locations of the other five Temples of Insanity and the movements of Golden, I think I've located the other two temples, but the only one we can access at the moment looks like it's in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in the jungle."

"What's stopping you from getting to the other one?"

"If the last five temples are anything to go by, the one here," Josh pointed at the spot in the jungle, "should grant me a power or ability that will enable me to reach that one up in the mountains of Frigia. That and I need a bit more time to winter-proof my limbs so the joints don't completely lock up in the cold."

Butts was still looking pensively at the map as Josh talked, "do you have a copy or a photo of that clue? I have a hunch as to what you're looking for."

"You do?"

"Mhm. I'm an archeo-anthropologist remember? I literally have a degree in ancient civilisations and religions."

Josh laughed, "Oh yeah, you are!" He shook his head, "how could I forget?" Rummaging through his papers, Josh pulled out a photograph he'd taken at the last temple that he'd found on the fog-shrouded island of Çé'ran in the middle of the Mindanian Ocean.

Taking the image, Butts scanned over it "hold on, I need to cross reference this with my books; the symbols look very familiar." Butts turned and slowly padded his way back up the stairs, the photo in his grip, as Josh followed behind him. "I think I've encountered this civilisation before in my studies, the Manë, a people that worshipped gods of chaos and saw beauty in the random and disordered nature of the world." 

Exiting the basement and walking through the warmly lit home the two shared, Josh couldn't help but smile serenely as Butts began to talk eagerly about his passion.

"If I recall, they were a somewhat advanced civilisation; having the technology to build great settlements, mine and refine metals and gems, and spread out across the whole world." Entering his office, the wombat approached the large, floor-to-ceiling bookcase that took up the entirety of the westernmost wall, and took down a large and leather-bound tome. He laid the book on his oaken desk and opened it, scanning the table of contents for the right page to consult. 

It took him a few minutes, but eventually he nodded and dexterously slipped a claw into the stack of pages, flipping to a spot roughly a third of the way through the book. "Here; the Manë worshipped a number of gods, they had a whole pantheon, but one thing they all had in common was randomness and chaos." Butts pointed at the first section, an illustration of a large creature with many arms that seemed to guide numerous aspects. "This is Nyturlyn; the god of the world. This was the deity that was said to govern nature, the weather, the harvest, the animals and natural disasters. Manë who made their livings in agriculture were the most avid followers of Nyturlyn, praying to them daily for the randomness of the world to allow their crops to thrive."

His claw moved to the next page, indicating a figure surrounded by what looked like waves, the spray all around them in clouds. "This is Ochena, god of the tides. They were the diety said to govern the waves and where the seas would take you. Naturally the patron deity of sailors, fishermen and all those lost at sea. In fact, you know how we have the phrase 'tempest tossed'?"

Josh nodded, "Yeah, you saying it came from these Manë people?"

"Yep. In Manëan, the phrase was 'Ochena Rloss', a phrase that can be literally translated to 'scattered to the seas' but was more commonly a metaphor that meant 'to be frazzled and uncertain of ones place in the world' and over the centuries of being parroted, it gradually turned into what we have today." Butts turned the page, and pointed to the next illustration; a glowing creature shrouded in shadows, its form speckled with stars and what looked like its fingers long and clawed. "This is Noxleth, the god of what comes in the dark." 

Josh snickered, "So does that mean he's the god of masturbation?"

Butts gave his boyfriend the side-eye, before shaking his head and chuckling at him. "No, that's Limbinio, god of sexuality, this is the other kind of coming. Noxleth is the deity that governs, for want of a better translation, the things that go bump in the night. They are often cited as being a god of fear and nightmares, but no one is 100% sure just yet." Gesturing at the next page, he continued, "And, while there have been no uncovered depictions of them, this is page talks about Limbinio, who I just mentioned. They governed the chaos of love, gender and sexual attraction, being seen as governing both faithful relationships and brief trysts." He glanced at Josh, "but, I do believe this next page is what we're looking for in relation to your Insanity Sapphires."

He turned the page, the soft sound of the paper making Josh tingle with anticipation, and revealed a page of just text. 

Josh made a quiet sound of disappointment, "Is that it? No cool badass picture this time either?"

Butts shook his head, "I'm afraid not. However, it's for a different reason; while Limbinio has no image because none have been found, this god has no known form at all. This is Insapiol, god of madness and, on a less edgy front, of the mentally ill."

"Insapiol? As in insane and sapphire?"

"Exactly. While my peers and I have yet to fully find out why, every temple to Insapiol we've found has contained a recess containing small sapphires. And from how you've described the temples where you've found your other five Insanity Sapphires, and by the runes on the wall in this picture," he waved with the picture in his hand, "the places you've been finding the gems in have been the largest of the temples built to this god, where whole cities would gather to worship. And the concentrated power of all this worship of this particular deity, all in one place, have infused the large crystals with pure chaos energy. My colleagues and I have long speculated what would happen if all of those mythical crystals were to be gathered in one place, or if one person were to wield all seven, and it seems you may be on track to test that out."

Josh raised an eyebrow, "I caught that change of tone, Butts. What's wrong?"

"Well," Butts sighed deeply, "it's just... all that madness and chaos in one place, or worse with one single being, no one knows what kinda ramifications that could have, what it could do to an unprotected mind or soul. And, let's face it Josh, you've been through a lot in your life. You're hardly fully All There, and there's a chance that the Sapphires you've collected and fused with already may have made you worse. If you were to collect all seven, I worry that you could lose yourself entirely."

Josh looked down at himself, at his mechanical arms and legs, at the deep scratches in the mechanical limbs, and matched his boyfriend's sigh. Butts wasn't wrong; he'd been through the wringer and back on multiple occasions. He vividly recalled the fight with Golden and the flight from a collapsing underground temple that had lost him his right leg and arm, the battle with a guardian golem that had claimed his left arm, the fall from the top of another temple that had left his throat impaled on a stalagmite and snuffed out his natural voice, only surviving when Golden had found him and taken him to a hospital, citing that it would be 'no fun' if the hedgehog had perished there, and the many, many other scraps he'd gotten into over the years. "Butts..."

"Yeah Josh?"

"You're right, I know you are, and I'm also pretty terrified of losing myself and hurting you, but I'm also scared of what might happen if Golden gets his hands on the power of the Sapphires. If he gets them, and absorbs their power, I worry that he'll finally go through with it and kill me to claim what I've obtained." He chuckled, his scratchy robotic laugh rasping from his throat. "Besides, I may not be All There, but I've gotten more than half of the Sapphires and I'm still at least relatively stable, so I should be okay. Plus I built these things," he waved his arms and kicked his legs in a goofy little dance, "so if I lose anything else I can just build some more parts. At least as long as I don't lose my dick, not entirely sure if I'd be able to make a robotic one that would be safe to fuck with. If I lose my dick we're pretty much boned." He paused, "pun not intended."

Butts laughed heartily. As much as he did worry, Josh always knew what to do to cheer him up. "You have a valid point; you are very capable, but I love you, and I am always gonna be worried about you. Especially when you routinely put yourself in such potentially fatal situations as you do." He shook his head, "I suppose you wanna know where the next temple is, yeah?"

"If you wouldn't mind."

Butts nodded and closed the book, turning it over and opening the back cover. Slowly he began leafing through numerous maps and diagrams until he found what he was after. "Here," he tapped the page with a claw, "this is a map taken from one of the smaller temples in the ruins of Old Cerin roughly eight years ago, it was in what we determined to be the personal quarters of the head of that particular temple."

"We?"

"Yes, I was the supervisor of that expedition, this was back before we met, so you wouldn't remember that. Anyway by this map, it seems that you were correct in where you guessed the two temples you haven't visited yet are. However, it seems that there are more than seven temples," Butts glanced at Josh, hearing a sharp intake of breath, "from everything we've found, there have been allusions to an eighth temple; the original temple, in a the long-forgotten cradle of the Manë civilisation."

"A Master Sapphire.."

"That's the working theory, at least. And that's why I'm so worried about you pursuing this; you've managed to withstand the chaotic powers of the five sapphires you've found so far, but from all the clues we've found, it's safe to assume that this Master Sapphire contains far more power than the rest of them combined, and though it's most likely hyperbole, possibly even the soul of Insapion themselves."

"And you haven't found that temple yet?"

"Not yet, we tried to go to the various locations of the main Insanity Sapphires that you found but there was always some kind of enchantment or something keeping us out of the main room with the crystal, so we guessed that the hints to the location of the cradle rests in the rooms with the sapphires. There are texts that state, quote, 'only those with a soul of true chaos may enter the sanctums and claim the Eyes of Insapion' so I would guess that we were too level headed or the like to be considered souls of true chaos."

"So it's one of those 'chosen one' things then?"

"I suppose?"

"Well that'd explain why the temples were always ransacked but the Sapphire rooms were always sealed." He paused, "wait so does that mean I'm the chosen one? Because Golden has never been able to get into the Sapphire rooms, he's always had to wait for me to show up and try and slip in before me or claim the sapphire before I could."

"Perhaps, but if you are, we still don't know what you've been chosen for. It could be to save the world, or to end it. We have no way of knowing, and I don't want to see you corrupted."

"But what if I need to save it, Butts, what if I need to save you? What if I stand by and let things happen and you get hurt because of it?"

Butts looked away, "Is it really worth risking your mind and soul for?"

Josh's expression hardened. "I decided you were worth risking everything for the day I started dating you. Are their any Manë legends about impending disasters? Is there something coming?"

"Every civilisation has prophecies of the End Times, it's all part of the fear of the unknown, but yes. There are multiple tales that tell of a mass disaster being averted by the one of purest chaos harnessing the power of the eight Eyes of Insapion, but there is no definitive timeline on it."

"So I should get them all as soon as possible, so I have the location of The Cradle in my back pocket for when I need to grab that last sapphire. Actually, that photo I gave you, the runes, you never mentioned what that was."

"As I suspected, it's a segment of the riddle needed to find The Cradle. Do you have the other four that you've seen?"

Josh tilted his head, "I should do, they'll be somewhere in my workshop at least. Probably."

Butts nodded, "Very well. You go find the sixth temple. It's in the depths of the Crealos Jungle, the ancient city of Ceranet. Expect snakes, mosquitoes, leeches, the usual jungle fare. I'll try and figure out what I can from the segments of riddle you have so far."

Josh gave a grin and a casual salute, making his way to the door, "Aye aye Captain Butts."

"And Josh?" Butts' voice was soft, nervous, vulnerable. A far cry from the confident academic that he'd been all throughout their conversation.

Josh stopped and looked back, "yeah babe?"

"Be careful, okay?"

"You have my word."

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo this happened. Was originally gonna be a multi-chapter thing following Josh the Hedgehog to both of the other locations and showing the consequences of him claiming the power of all the Sapphires, but ya girl doesn't have the Brain for that shit so I'm just gonna leave this open just in case Josh wants to do something with this springboard lol.
> 
> Hope I didn't overstep my bounds with this, Josh, I'm really sorry if I did. Hope you enjoyed it though, and I hope anyone else who reads this enjoyed it too :3


End file.
